


Sick Baby

by mcmachine



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Sick baby, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 03:44:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13355799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcmachine/pseuds/mcmachine
Summary: Jackson has Harriet one night when she's running a fever and won't stop cring. He decides to call for reinforcements.





	Sick Baby

It’d been hours of this, the constant wailing and crying of his year old daughter. It was a fever and he’d already given her medicine, but it hadn’t managed to calm her down. Two different neighbors had knocked on the door to check and make sure that everything was alright, the grandmother to the apartment on the left even offering to try and calm her down. Jackson was stubborn as ever, though, and insisted on doing this alone.

Until Harriet had begun wailing out ‘Ma–ma! Ma-ma!' over and over again. 

That had lasted for about forty minutes before he’d finally given in, dialing up April. He could only take so much. She hadn’t shown much hesitance when she’d heard the crying in the background.

It takes record time for her to arrive outside of his apartment, slippers still on from having not bothered changing. Knocking on the door loudly, April’s bouncing anxiously on her heels until her ex-husband finally opens it, the distinct wailing of their child becoming more evident. 

“Hey,” she rushes in without too much pause to really look at Jackson, moving quickly back to the nursery. It takes less than five seconds before she’s slipped her hands underneath Harriet's growing form, scooping up the baby and holding her firmly against her front side, weight shifting and bouncing between both of her feet, cooing the little girl.

“Hey, baby girl,” the murmur is interrupted by another wail. “You’re feeling a little too hot, huh? That’s okay. Mama’s got you, nugget.” A kiss is pressed against the warm forehead, even if feeling the fever does raise some concern of her own.

For a moment, Jackson paused just to watch her. There’d never been a doubt in his mind that she would make an excellent mother (though he’d been plagued plenty with his own doubt over him as a father after never having one himself, but he was fiercely determined to be the father that he had never had). The wailing doesn’t immediately cease, but it does quiet, even as he watches Harriet's tiny fists flail and pound against April’s shoulders. She wasn’t often a fussy baby, but when she was, it tended to be all out in excessive. Overcompensating, perhaps.

April’s nearly forgotten his presence and almost jumps when he places a soft hand on the shoulder unoccupied from their child, glancing back at him with one corner of her mouth pulling up in a soft smile. He squeezes her shoulder softly in appreciation, thumb rubbing gentle circles.

“Sometimes a girl just wants her mom, I guess. I was the same way when I was sick as a kid. It used to drive my dad crazy.”

“I can see why.” Jackson emits a good-natured chuckle, his own eyes crinkling as a smile lifts his cheeks. There were moments, of course, when he wished they could have been more together about this – that he didn’t have to make a phone call for their child to have her mother on certain days of the week. But this was the arrangement. This was what worked better for them.

“D’you mind–?” April’s head tilts toward the rocking chair.

“No, not at all.”

The redhead steps across the nursery and slowly sits down in the chair, one foot on the ground to gently rock herself and the baby back and forth in the sturdy chair. A hand remained firm on Harriet's back, patting ever so gently on occasion, humming a gentle lullaby. 

For a moment, Jackson just stood there with love swirling in blue-green hues as he watched his daughter and her mother. The tension in his features and shoulders lessen as the crying does, and he leans against the doorway of the room, arms folded across his chest casually. As the minutes pass, the cries begin to quiet, and a smile etched itself on his lips again. A part of him was jealous that she seemed to be slightly more effective when it came to this, but he kept it from letting self-doubt run through his mind again for the moment. Both of them were good parents. He'd made a good call by picking up the phone instead of letting his pride get in the way.

“I think she’s asleep.” April finally whispers when the only noise is finally her quiet hum, very slowly standing up from her place in the rocking chair.

The father takes a few strides across the room to peer at their child before nodding his head in agreement. He watches April press another soft kiss against her forehead before bending over the crib and setting her down for what would hopefully last a few more hours. Both of them slip out of the room again, baby monitor on but door shut, before speaking.

“Thank you, for coming over.”

“Yeah, of course. Any time – you know that.”


End file.
